To those who believe they're mutually exclusive let me extract my original thought. I love my son, unconditionally. I hate some of the things he does. He is, to me, a unique person and also the sum of his actions/thoughts/etc. Therefore I both love him and can hate him(by hating what he does). I don't believe any amount of bad actions could make me not love him, therefore Love supersedes. I believe mercy and justice work the same way. The opposite of love isn't hate, it's just our instinctive answer. The opposite of love and hate (both) are apathy. You can be loved or unloved which is a degree of feeling. there can be justice or injustice which is a degree on a very subjective scale. You can scope the problem at the individual or a society. So what is the ultimate opposite of justice? With enough injustice, a total devaluing of the individual would be base level, therefore I believe the opposite of injustice is the total debasement of the individual. Mercy requires, by definition, a high value of the individual and that's why I don't think it can be the opposite.
"There ought to be a term that would designate those who actually follow the teachings of Jesus, since the word 'Christian' has been largely divorced from those teachings, and so polluted by fundamentalists that it has come to connote their polar opposite: intolerance, vindictive hatred, and bigotry." -- Philip Stater, Huffington Post
always working on cleaning my windows- me regarding Johari
always working on cleaning my windows- me regarding Johari
